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January 25, 2005

Google Browser Rumors

In more Google news today, Reuters reports that Google has hired the lead engineer for Firefox. This comes on the heels of their registration of the Gbrowser.com domain and hiring of several Internet Explorer engineers last year.

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Googling Television

Google and Yahoo are expanding their search products to television. Google Labs released their beta of 'Google Video' today. This system allows a user to search closed captioning and see still frame grabs of the relevant video. Some PVRs and TV tuner cards for PCs have done this in the past - tuning to or alerting when certain keywords were matched. But these projects are on a much broader scale.

In a New York Times story this morning (free registration required), Google's vp for product management says "The long-term business model is complicated and will evolve over time." I'll say - the rights to aggregating video from hundreds of local television broadcasts, not to mention networks like CNN, ABC, etc., are going to be complex. But given Google's audience, it wil be interesting to see if broadcasters see value in placement here. The Times story digs briefly into the touchy issues of rights and network deals related to these types of technologies. A worthwhile read.

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January 21, 2005

My Aching Teeth...

At my 6-month teeth cleaning earlier this week, the dentist found a hairline crack in both of my lower back molars. Ouch. One was worse than the other, so I went under the drill Thursday to get a crown. I *hate* the dentist, especially when the drill, novocaine, or impressions are involved. Wearing my iPod and listening to Chris O'Reilly helped, but only marginally. I'm still sore, close to 24 hours later. Time heals all, right? Can't wait for the visit in two weeks for the final porcelain. That's also going to hurt, I'm sure. Then we get to do another one in a few months. Yay.

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RSS Madness

This is a site update. I've added a pretty slick feature to Trotz.com, a set of (for now) four headline aggregation pages, implemented with the spiffy PHP program 'zFeeder'. Listed on the left rail of most pages of the site under 'B L O G R O L L', these pages assemble RSS feeds from some of my favorite sites. It's a whole lot easier to check out these sites here, and visit headlines I'm interested in. Check them out, and let me know what you think.

The categories include:

DailyGeekOut: Sites like BoingBoing, Engadget, Gizmodo, TheFeature, Screenhead, etc.
News Feeds: Includes feeds from CNN.com and SI.com (where I work), The New York Times, The Boston Globe, etc. Easy way to glance at the top news of the moment.
Mac News: As a big Mac-geek, I need my daily dose of Mac news, tips and rumors. So here it is. Macslash, TUAW, etc. Good stuff.
MCE Feeds: I've been fooling around with Windows XP Media Center Edition for a while now, so this page lets me keep up with The Green Button, various Microsoft employee blogs, and hardware/software news from the gadget sites.

This is what got me going here. CNN.com (plus Money.com and SI.com) recently launched RSS feeds. Members of my team were involved in that effort, and I started thinking a lot more about how to use these. I've tried RSS Readers, but found that going to another application was always somewhat annoying - I'd rather do this from the browser. Part of the CNN RSS effort involves distributing these feeds to MyYahoo. So I spent quite a bit of time aggregating my favorite sites into pages there. I realized then that there were tools made for Moveable Type to do this, and tried a few. I eventually settled on zFeeder, a simple-to-install PHP system to acquire, organize and display RSS feeds.

Being PHP-based, the pages display the most recent RSS data, throttled by settings in the zFeeder admin system. So if I set updates to 60 minutes, you can hit reload all you want and the system will only go out to fetch new data based on that setting. Nice!

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January 19, 2005

The Best Media Center That Isn't

Guest columnist Ross Rubin blogs on Engadget today that despite Apple not calling the Mac mini a media center device, it has all that in spades. DVD-player? Check. Rip, Mix, Burn? Check. Ken Burns hi-res slideshow effects? Check. Add on a USB TV tuner, and this thing is your TiVo on steroids. Rubin suggests the mini is a stealth MCE. The apps in iLife are all that a user is looking for when they want to access their media (movies, music, photos), and of course, there is the elegance factor. He also talks about the possibility that Apple is waiting to enter this market for a true media center once the CableCard standard is settled. That's a great point - you should see how my IR blasters are scattered around with my MCEs, TiVo, etc. Anyway, others have blogged about 'mini as media center', but I think he hits the nail on the head here.

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Opting out of the Swimsuit Issue

The New York Times Richard Sandomir reports today (free registration required) that subscribers to Sports Illustrated can call a toll-free number to skip the annual Swimsuit issue and instead extend their subscription by one issue. SI management is quoted as saying that this has always been the policy - but the mag decided this year to post a message in their pages stating this explicitly. So far, 25,829 have opted out. That's 0.8% of the magazine's stated 3.2 million subscribers. When the policy wasn't publicized last year, a total of 21,065 skipped the issue.

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Google: Just Say 'nofollow' to Comment Spam

Google blogged yesterday regarding a new initiative they are leading with the support of the major blogging software developers to implement techniques to block comment spam. This will be achieved through the use of a 'rel="nofollow"' tag in links. This will ultimately reduce the value of spamming our beloved blogs and hopefully stem the tide of these efforts. Until this is implemented, I'll still rely on the wonderful MT-Blacklist plugin. It rocks.

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January 18, 2005

ESPN Joins the Dark Side

In the 'If you can't beat them, join them' category, the New York Times reports today (free registration required) that ESPN has signed a 15-year deal with Electronic Arts giving EA exclusive rights to the ESPN brand in video games. Guess EA is looking at that NFL deal as an even smarter move now. So the big question is - will the new NFL flagship EA game have some Frankenstein-like title? I'm sorry, but 'ESPN-Madden NFL2k6' just doesn't roll off the tongue.

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NFL Podcasts

Well, not exactly. It's not an XML feed - it's a pay-to-download deal the NFL has struck with Audible.com to offer day-after recordings of the remaining playoff games, plus the Superbowl. Games should cost users $10 each, or up to $5 for game highlights. Yawn. Who wants to listen to a game after the fact. Especially football. I hope Audible didn't pay too much for this deal. Read more in this AP story.

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January 17, 2005

Hello, McFly

In what seems to be a Ken Russel film gone awry, Crispin Glover has a new 'art film' he's working on featuring some boobies, quite a few actors with Down Syndrome, snails, salt, blackface, swastikas and the eponymous Mr. Glover. Weird, weird, weird. Quicktime preview here (mildly NSFW).

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TiVo Blows Off Comcast?

The gray lady reports today that Tivo was close to a deal with Comcast (free registration required) to put TiVo technology into Comcast's set-top-boxes, but TiVo's board backed out based on the recommendation of Michael Ramsey, then CEO and Chairman. Now, Ramsey has resigned the CEO position, but remains as chairman. An interesting read, for sure. If TiVo continues to make boneheaded moves like this, the company won't be worth much more than the spiffy plush TiVo mascot I have on my office shelf. Sad, really.

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Is that an Elbow?

Baby Trotz is coming along nicely. Amy still has plenty of energy - enough to play two gigs daily recently for the Fox Theater production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, anyway! A bit tired from time to time, but nothing too bad. And sleeping is getting tough. Anyway, we're now at the point where we can feel the little one stretching their legs/feet/hands - enough so that we can feel it when we touch Amy's belly. Crazy stuff. My brother described his twins looking like sharks under his wife's stomach in their later stages, so I guess this is typical, even without twins.

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G5 Powerbook/iBook by Q2?!?

Despite Apple claims just last week that 'thermal challenges' might delay the announcement of portable G5 laptops, Taiwanese tech magazine DigiTimes reports on two manufacturers there ready to ship G5 portables in quantity by the end of Q2 2005. The report is headlined in ho-hum fashion: 'Sources: Taiwan makers receive Apple’s Mac mini and iPod shuffle orders.' Yawn. Well, what the report fails to highlight is that two Taiwanese vendors are on track to ship 200k+ portables to Apple by Q2 2005.

Asustek Computer is making the iPod shuffle, and is tapped in this report to ship G5 iBooks in quantity before the end of Q2. Quanta is reported to be on track to ship 30-50k Powerbook G5s per month in Q2.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

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Bill Gates: Teen Idol

BoingBoing reports on this posting from monkey methods' blog: photos allegedly from a 'Teen Beat' magazine story on Bill Gates, circa 1983. My favorite part of these is not the vintage nostalgia, yadda yadda, but rather the fact that what looks like a 512k Mac appears on the desk next to his stinky AT in the background. I seriously doubt that you'd find a Dual-G5 and Cinema Display sharing space with Mr. Gates P4 if you visited his office at Redmond these days...

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January 16, 2005

Mmmmmm Delicious!

Wired profiles one of the more interesting Mac software developers around, Delicious Monster. This is the group behind the fascinating Delicious Library, their first release, an app that fuels what Wired calls some users 'Nick Hornby-esque desire to catalog every song, book and movie on their living room shelves.' These guys don't have an office - the seven employees typically meet in a local coffee shop all day long, paying 'rent' by buying lots of coffee. With the innovation and successs of 'Library,' which uses an iSight to read bar codes and look up data about your stuff on the 'net, they might be able to have their own office - with it's own barista - soon.

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iWork Screens

Apple-X.net has a scoop this morning. They have an extensive set of screen shots of Apple's new iWork application. Lots of looks at templates for Keynote2 as well as Pages. No big surprises, but the apps look good. I'm glad I've pre-ordered mine ;-).

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January 14, 2005

Brothers in Arms Preview

Among the games I want to get my hands on this year, Brothers in Arms tops this list. Combining the best of the scripted action in Call of Duty with the type of 'squad commander' tactics seen in Full Spectrum Warrior, this game should be amazing. Your mission begins as you parachute behind enemy lines on D-Day and lead your team throughout the campaign.

Gamespot has a great preview of the multiplayer version of the game up today. The multiplayer scenarios sound great - not your usual 'capture the flag' abstract b.s., but more sensible missions. Nice.

I saw a preview of the game when it was being shown by Katscratch of the Frag Dolls at the Microsoft Digital Entertainment Everywhere event iin Los Angeles in October, and the early build she was playing looked every bit as good as this screenshot. Judicious use of soft light bloom lends a very nostalgic feel to this one, and surprising visual effects like dirt which splashes onto your character's 'glasses' when you happen to be too close to explosions lend to the mood here. And from what I hear, anyone who might have seen these settings in real life under fire might have a flashback or two seeing this game - the dev team did extensive work on-site for accuracy.

Release is set for February 22nd.

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Marathon is Dead, Long Live Marathon!

MacSlash reports on the public release (for free download, but not to the open-source community) of the seminal Marathon Trilogy by Bungie. You know them - makers of Pathways into Darkness, Myth, Oni -- and a little game called Halo/Halo2?

Way back in the day, when we had a couple of bad-ass Quadra 900s and CX's networked in our design office at The Augusta Chronicle, my buddies and I would stay after work until close to dawn chasing one another around with flamethrowers, shooting BOBs with dual pistols, and making myself motion sick. Ah, those were the days.

Now, with this release by Bungie.org we can experience these games on the latest and greatest hardware!

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January 11, 2005

My, My, Macintosh!

Okay - you've probably heard all of this by now, but here goes. iLife, iWork, iShuffle and the Mac Mini are all here!

Completely new app suite called iWork - featuring souped up Keynote, revved to v.2 AND 'Pages', Apple's first word processor since AppleWorks. Includes MSFT Word compatibility. $79, available 1/22/05.

New iLife - every application with major revisions except for iTunes. iPhoto gets RAW support, iMovie is now HD, iDVD now has instant import from tape to DVD. $79, available 1/22/05.

New iPod Shuffle - flash-based iPod is a reality. Those ThinkSecret guys DO have street cred. Basically, an elegant flash drive. Good stuff. 512MB/1GB versions at $99/$149. Available now, if the Apple Store can get back up and running - it's swamped by traffic right now.

And best of all - the new Mac mini! Like a slice of the old cube (about the height of an iPod mini), this baby is sweet. Measuring 6 x 6 x 2.5-inches, it features the following specs: 1.25/1.42GHz G4, 256MB RAM (upgradable to 1GB), ATI Radeon 9200 32MB, 40GB/80GB Ultra ATA, Combo Drive (DVD-ROM, CD burner), Firewire 400, two USB 2.0, Audio out (but no audio in, unfortunately) DVI and VGA output, 10/100BASE-T Ethernet and a 56k modem. Built-to-order options include Bluetooth and Airport. Ships with OSX Panther and iLife '05. Looks like I know what my Mom's getting to video conference and see the baby.

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iPresident

Who knew that a member of the red states might be an iPod user. Well, Christopher Morris' excellent black and white photo essay of the private life of our fearless leader (cough) shows that, in fact, said President likes to exercise with his iPod. Obviously, this specific photo could be of anyone holding the iPod, but take a look at the entire picture story, and you'll see. I wish we could make out what he was listening to in this photo, however. George has taken advantage of what has to be a very large gadget budget. MacDailyNews reports that he's sporting a pair of those high-end Etymotic Research ER-6i Isolator earphones and that he's listening to Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl (from Moondance). Too bad I don't care for any of his other choices, but that's a killer album. Sigh.

That makes both top members of the executive brance iPod users. The Washington Post reported that Dick Cheney's kids bought him an iPod for Christmas in 2003. This news sparked an ugly squabble on MacDailyNews boards. Can't we all just get along?

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January 10, 2005

Shuttle MCE

Interesting bit of info from CES. Shuttle, makers of super-small form factor PCs, showed off a set-top-box form factor Windows XP Media Center Edition box. It's super slim (like half the height of the AlienWare DHS), so I'll reserve comment until more specs come to light. Interesting, though.

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GTA Invading PSP

Damnit. Now I'll have to buy a freaking Playstation Portable. Rockstar Games has announced a NEW Grand Theft Auto game based in Liberty City (home of the original GTA III) playable on the forthcoming PSP machine. Let me repeat - this is not a port of GTAIII to the PSP, it's a stinkin' new game. Bring it on!

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Shut the Fox Up!

The New York Daily News is reporting an a curious gadget designed to filter out the Fox News Channel. The little device screws in-line between your incoming TV signal and the RF input on your television (standard cable only) and blocks Fox News. Pretty damn funny.

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January 08, 2005

Behind the Bugs during Bill G.'s CES Keynote

For those of you who hadn't heard, Bill Gates CES keynote was marred by three crash/errors last Wednesday. Now, Sean Alexander, product manager for Windows Media Center edition, has posted his behind the scenes post-mortem on what actually happened on his blog, Addicted to Digital Media. Interesting read, for sure. If it had been my call, I would never have tried to run both Sean's demo as well as the Conan/Bill demo off a single machine far across the stage. Nobody expects real-world in these demos, so the notion that it would be best to play off a single machine with all kinds of enhancements like a USB booster just doesn't make a lot of sense. Anyway, Sean is a great guy (I know him from some dev work I've done with MCE), so kudos to him for his open report on the incident.

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Technorati Awards

Technorati has announced the winners of their annual developers contest. PersonalDemocracy.com, where my friend Hart Hooton is general manager, gets a nod in this well-respected competition. Woo-hoo!

Here's the description of why PD was selected:

The URL speaks for itself. This website let's you stay on top of all things political. Specifically, it uses Technorati to show which politicians are rising and falling in the blogosphere-a phenomenon that has become increasingly relevant with politics and journalism.

More on this at BoingBoing and Technorati.

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Holy iHome, Batman!

This set of very suspect snaps showed up on someone's iDisk yesterday - could this be a very crafty mockup, or is it in fact the headless Mac we've been hearing so much about? This seems like it might be one of those typical pre-MacWorld hoaxes. But hey, who cares. It's kinda fun to look at. I'm suspicious in that we don't see a video port on these photos of the 'iHome Media Centre'. And why has Apple gone all 'UK-style' on us?. Or perhaps there is no VGA/DVI port for this baby - it's gonna be an s-video out or some kind of wacky outboard composite connector or something. Or maybe it's truly meant as a media server, no head, only connected to via a remote PC or Mac. I dunno, but it's fun to speculate wildly, isn't it?

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January 07, 2005

Morning News Gets New Digs

The Savannah Morning News has moved into it's new home. Like many businesses, they have outgrown their old facility. Working for the News-Press in the late 80s and early 90s, we felt very much a part of city, sitting in the midst of everything. The annual St. Patrick's Day parade passing by out front. We were only a stone's throw from City Hall. Moments from the ports, the police barracks, and all sorts of other key Savannah institutions. But while it's sad that the paper is moving out of their 100+ year location in downtown Savannah (my hometown), it's clearly a great new facility, and the costs to add these types of improvements on the old building would have been prohibitive.
Savannahnow.com coverage here
Slideshow here
VR gallery here

I particularly liked seeing this image of the building as it appeared in the 1930s, with delivery trucks lined up on Bay Street - exactly where I used to park as a young photographer, ready to dash out to cover breaking news anyplace around town. We didn't see too many Model-As, however, or railroad tracks on Whitaker or Bay!

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Camera Mail

Here's an interesting take which seems inspired by Wired's 'Rants & Raves' feature. This guy has a project where he sends a disposable camera with attached instructions for the postal workers to take photos. The results are interesting.

Images, details here.

Posted by jetrotz at 11:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Fox News Remains Partisan, Less Capable in Tsunami Coverage

The recent natural disaster of biblical proportions points out Fox News lack of resources compared to it's biggest rival, according to this column at Salon.com (membership required, or watch a short commercial for a day pass to read this story). The article points out a limited amount of staff dispatched to the region by Fox (while CNN has 75+ in the affected countries) and lots of partisan us v. them discussion. My favorite is this bit about a Fox host thinking out loud about where the relief money was going.

Fox host John Gibson bemoaned the fact that U.S. relief -- getting water, food and shelter to millions of destitute people -- might be part of an insurance scam to simply pay for the cost of rebuilding a resort community. "This is the travel industry, major big hotel companies," he said last week. "How is it that United States taxpayers are going to be convinced you have to build hotels in Phuket?" He worried aloud that "Thailand, Indonesia, India, the countries that got hit [will] say, 'We need dough and we need buckets of it to fix all this so Swedes can go on vacation in Phuket again.'"

Hey, dumb#@%! There are close to 200k dead from this thing, and you are talking about the possibility some money might revitalize a Thai resort? Give me a break!

Posted by jetrotz at 10:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Train Wreck near Augusta Illustrates Vulnerability

A train wreck in Graniteville, SC, about a dozen miles from Augusta, GA, points out a glariing weakness in U.S. homeland security to an intentional attack on hazardous materials transportation systems. This was an accident, and eight are known dead. The 'hot-zone' in close proximity to the derailment has not yet been entered, and more casualties may be found when the area is clear. I can only shudder thinking about this type of incident happening in a densely populated area instead of in the relatively rural area where this incident occured. I hope my former colleague Ron Cockerille (who's photo from the decontamination efforts appears at right) is making sure he avoids breathing too hard covering this story.

AugustaChronicle.com Picture Story here.
Chronicle story on the disaster here.

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DirecTV follows Dish with Mosaics in U.S.

DirecTV launched three 'mosaic' television channels on Thursday at CES in Las Vegas. The channels aggregate into one screen six or seven video signals by category, allowing a news junkie to keep tabs on CNN, CNN Headline News, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox News Channel and The Weather Channel on the same screen at one time.

CBS Marketwatch coverage here.

The Sports Mix includes ESPN, ESPN2, The NFL Network, TNT and others, but has the caveat that it may be blacked out subject to local programming restrictions. Kids Mix features children's networks such as Nickelodeon and Turner's own Cartoon Network.

These channels (which I was happy to see at home on my DirecTV system on channels 102, 104 and 111) follow the succesful launch of mosaics last Summer and Fall by Echostar's Dish Network. They broke this ground in the U.S. with an Olympics mosaic over the Summer showcasing the various NBC channels carrying that programming, and followed that up with an election-night mosaic featuring CNN and the other news networks.

The new DirecTV mix channels can't truly be called interactive, however. They are a static collection of the networks with (on the news and sports channels) a somewhat annoying barker channel talking about news/sports programming on the network. Unlike the Dish version, the user cannot use the channel to move from video to video and change the audio signal. That small detail alone would, IMHO, vastly improve the usefullness of the service. The Dish version also allowed the user to highlight one of the streams and click to tune.

I suspect DirecTV will follow up with click to tune and switchable audio with a new version soon. BSkyB, their sister company in the UK, has numerous similar applications running there which have these features and more, including interactive news feeds and stories.

More screenshots here at Engadget.

Posted by jetrotz at 10:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Motorola Coughs up iPod Phone Details

From PCMag this morning -

"Speaking during a keynote at the International Consumer Electronics Show here, the executive demonstrated the phone, which in many ways mimics the iPod. It syncs with a computer and the iTunes Music Store like an iPod does, and incorporates the iPod interface for navigating and playing digital music, said Ron Garriques, a Motorola executive vice president."

Too bad it's not a Treo, though.

Posted by jetrotz at 10:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

What are they hiding?

Ok. Apple is one of my favorite companies. But why in the world would are we hearing about two really draconian moves this week. First, the suit against ThinkSecret. Now, Macintouch is reporting that Steve Jobs Macworld SF keynote will not be webcast, nor will it be uplinked to a satellite feed. Here at CNN, our incoming routers always carried the keynote, and you could always count on the Mac geeks around here (including myself) to be found glued to the TVs at their desks for the duration. I don't get it.
More commentary here at Slashdot.

Posted by jetrotz at 10:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 06, 2005

Diebold Voting

Ah, the internet is such a great source for these parodies. Here's one ironic look at a mythical Florida voting machine.
Link to video here (Quicktime)

Posted by jetrotz at 04:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Leaky Apple

As widely reported today, Apple is suing Mac-rumors web site ThinkSecret.com specifically mentioning published articles on the headless iMac and the iWork office suite.

Aside from adding tremendous street cred to ThinkSecret and the likelihood that these rumors are true (heck, even Reuters ran a story on the headless Mac), it seems odd that Apple would get so ramped up about products which will be publicly announced soon. As a big Mac fan, new product rumor mongering is a favorite pastime, and it seems draconian to be coming down on TS. Curious to see what happens next...

Posted by jetrotz at 01:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

NPPA Announces Photoblog Category for Annual Contest

The National Press Photographers Association has announced a new category in their annual photography contest 'to recognize the best work being produced by publicly accessible journalism web sites.' Rules are here. Last year's winners are all online here, including an environmental picture story reporting on the impact of the Blue Ridge Parkway by photographer Josh Meltzer who works with my friend Natalee Waters in Roanoke, VA. This includes not only sites affiliated with traditional journalism outlets but also independent journalism sites. The NPPA contest has represented the very best of newspaper and magazine photography for years, so this really represents a watermark moment by this type of organization recognizing the value and quality of independent photoblogging. Now, I have to look long and hard to see if something in my gallery might be worthwhile...

Posted by jetrotz at 12:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 05, 2005

Swimsuit Post #2

Okay. This might be considered overkill in some circles to have two stories about the SI Swimsuit Issue. But I wanted to brag on my friend Chris Gibbons excellent Flash design for a project that launched today to promote the joint Sports Illustrated/NBC effort to find the next SI Swimsuit Model. A project I was involved with last year, this time around, it's been expanded to include a six-part reality series (Wendesdays 8/7 on NBC). Viewers will vote to choose between the last two finalists in a later episode. The Flash treatment here is very slick. And the material isn't too bad either.

Posted by jetrotz at 02:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Heidi, meet Seal

So my old pal Heidi Klum is gonna marry Seal (via CNN.com). So, let me clarify that. Heidi and I shared a hot tub (along with her then-husband and a bunch of other folks) in Mexico a few years back when I was on assignment for a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit shoot. She's really down to earth, and was most fascinated by the IPIX technology we were using, including getting into the spirit of things and posing on both side of the picture, as IPIX VRs are two 180-degree images spliced together. So 'snap' Heidi poses on one side, Heidi moves to the other, and presto! Two Heidis, one panorama. I'd link to one of these, but SI.com has put most of the old Swimsuit content behind a subscription wall.

UPDATE: You can still see the VR! Here is one, courtesy of MSN Search's cache. LINK.

Now I think Seal is a great musician. Although he has become quite a commercial success, and some of his stuff is a bit too pop for my taste, I think his first disc from the early 90s is great, and remind me of some Peter Gabriel stuff.

Anyway, Mazel Tov to the happy couple!

Link: Heidi Gallery at SI.com
Link: CNN.com story

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Google Searches for Oddball Ad Agency

When a company declares that one of it's guiding pricinples is to 'not do evil' in their S1 filing, you would expect that their approach to promoting themselves is going to take a slightly different tact than the usual Fortune 500. To that end, Google has already used the resources of innovative agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the folks behind Burger King's Subservient Chicken and Method Soap's 'Come Clean' campaign.

The first work by Crispin was a series of billboards in hi-tech areas of the country seeking job applicants for Google featuring the following statement: "{first prime digit found in consecutive digits of e}.com."

Anyway, the New York Post is reporting that Google is looking to expand their conventional advertising in light of greater competition from Yahoo and Microsoft. Google nor Crispin would comment.

Posted by jetrotz at 11:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

When Does $350 Million Equal 42 Hours? (from pseudorandom)

Frank Boosman points out that, according to a report from the Chicago Sun-Times, the war in Iraq has cost $130 billion to date or $198M per day. That makes the amount committed to date by the U.S. to tsnuami relief ($350M) equal to 42.27 hours of Iraq war costs. Hmmmmm.

Posted by jetrotz at 11:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

HP Goes Linux for Home Entertainment

Despite already offering one of the slicker Windows Media Center solutions, Hewlett-Packard is announcing a Linux-based home entertainment hub at CES this week. Link to C|net report.

HP's new media hub will run the Linux operating system, include HD TV recording and an ethernet connection to your home network for access to media files stored on other PCs. It will have a remote control, much like the MCE, but likely have an option for a full keyboard.

It's fascinating that HP is choosing to go the Linux route when they have so fully embraced Windows Media Center. Variety is good, and a statement on Tuesday from Vyomesch Joshi, executive vice president of HP's imaging and printing group that "customers want simplicity, innovation and mainstream price points," seems to explain some of the reasons why they have gone the Linux route.

HP has done this before, way back in 2001, also on a Linux platform. And we all know and love another fabulous Linux-based home entertainment box - the TiVo!

I'm looking forward to seeing HP's new offering.

Posted by jetrotz at 10:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 04, 2005

Not That Tsunami

Photo editors have a job to do. Part of that job is to make sure of the sources of the images they publish, especially gigantical, four-column monstrosities like the one in the Calgary Herald. Great image, illustrates the story well. Trouble is, this photo is from a tsunami that hit China a few years back. It's easily found on the web via a google search. Turns out this is a two-year-old Reuters photo of a group of people who gathered to watch some large waves, and one turned out to be larger than expected. The mayor of Calgary had the image and showed it during a presentation for tsunami aid, and the Herald asked for the image, assuming that it was a current image. Ooops. Link to apology here.

Posted by jetrotz at 11:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Patently Absurd

The patent office is a fascinating resource, I have discovered, after readying an interesting post on Waxy.org.

Andy Baio points out a patent application by Apple Computer for the backend software used to publish music to the iTunes Music Store. Cool stuff.

Even more interestingly, he points out that you can keep up with your favorite companies approved and pending patents, like so.

So, here are all approved patents and pending applications for Apple Computer. Some other interesting company searches: Google's pending and approved, TiVo's pending and approved, and Yahoo's pending and approved.

And this blog, FreshPatents.com, has RSS feeds by industry on new patent requests/grants. Cool!

Posted by jetrotz at 10:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tsunami Strikes Aceh

BBC footage from a second-story balcony in Aceh, Indonesia. This is one of the most compelling videos I've seen to date of the wave striking, in a blink of the eye obliterating everything in it's path. Single story dwellings are swept away, and only two-story buildings seem to be spared. Via Waxy.org.

Posted by jetrotz at 10:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 03, 2005

Sir Peter

British games maker Peter Molyneux (who I discussed regarding his game Fable a few weeks back) will become the first games developer to be named to the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth. Here here, Sir Peter! You'll have to write yourself into the Fable sequel, I guess, as lord of one of the manors. More here from the BBC.

Posted by jetrotz at 06:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Swimsuit Cover Model Survives Tsunami

Petra Nemcova, the 2005 SI Swimsuit Issue cover model, survived the tidal wave while vacationing in Phuket, Thailand with her boyfriend (who remains missing). She is suffering from a broken pelvis and internal injuries, but is expected to return to her home in the Czech Republic soon. She has been in every annual Swimsuit issue since she first appeared in 2002

Posted by jetrotz at 01:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Headless Mac

Apple is expected to announce a bare bones, G4-based iMac without a display at Macworld Expo on January 11 that will retail for $499, highly reliable sources have confirmed to Think Secret (via eHomeUpgrade). The machine will be a slim form factor to go beneath or beside a monitor, and include a custom version of iLife. This one will target likley PC-switchers who would already have a monitor they might use with their shiny new Mac.

Posted by jetrotz at 01:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

New Year's 2005 QTVRs

Better late than never. Here's a link to a grand collection of Quicktime VR's from around the world on New Year's Eve. Sorry, none from my in-laws living room in Sarasota playing Cadoo with our 5 and 8 year old nephews.

Posted by jetrotz at 12:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

SMS Tsunami Alerts

BoingBoing reports on a remarkable idea to help warn people in remote areas, as in the case of the Christmas Tsunami. 'Problem: No effective system of mass, international alert existed in South Asia to quickly warn those in harm's way of the tsunami's approach.

One approach to a solution, created in the span of about 24 hours by an impromtu volunteer geek corps: A tech system called Alert Retrieval Cache (ARC) which collects, sorts, and routes SMS messages for the puposes of alerts and relay communication. An early warning system based on SMS, short message service.'

Link

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Update: OnCinema MCE

For those of you DIY-types who lust after the Italian OnCinema TEATRO D1 A/V component sized, aluminum encased MCE 2005 PC with a built-in 7-inch touch screen I discussed earlier, here's a nice option. Atechfabrication has announced a slick case, complete with a cutout for a 7-inch LCD touchscreen. Not a bad idea to offer this to the home consumer market itching to leverage the MCE2005 approach to home media convergence. Still gonna cost a bundle to build a complete system, but it's nice to dream about, isn't it? Meanwhile, my DHS system from Alienware has now been on order since 11/16, even after they called to swap out video cards to avoid a 'lengthy delay'. Grumble.

Posted by jetrotz at 11:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tivo To Go Released

TiVo has announced the release of their TiVo To-Go feature, a much ballyhood new capability with significant DRM included to placate rights holders. The software allows you to move recordings between your networked TiVo Series2 DVR and your computer (for now, Windows only). But with previous capabilities using Mac's Rendezvous technology for picture and music sharing, I'm hoping the Mac software is not far behind. Now to go and get a TiVo 2 machines to replace my old first generation box.

Posted by jetrotz at 10:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tsunami Video

On vacation last week, I was away from any readily available broadband access, so I'm catching up with some of the incredible content on the web related to the Christmas Tsunami. Cheese and Crackers has one of the better aggregated collections of video content I've found. Definetly worth a look.

Posted by jetrotz at 10:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 01, 2005

Back from Vaca

Just back in Atlanta from a holiday trip to Florida. I'll resume posting shortly. Gosh, this page looks blank without any posts for the past week! Sorry.

Posted by jetrotz at 10:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack